Just a few more pics from the weekend! We'll post some more when we get a chance! Great fun!

Wonderful Wanakita!

Welcome to Wanakita Camp - the sign said boldly!!! This weekend, Kiwi, Kate and myself participated in an event for all the "wonderful" Aussies, Kiwis and Poms that are on a teaching exchange. About 4 hours from Ottawa, we were lucky enough (thanks Paddy) to get off work early to make the trek down there. Snow was forecast and came rather heavily about 100km out of Haliburton, a town of around 10,000 (near the camp site). Wanakita is a year round campsite that hosts people of all ages and backgrounds.

Arriving at 6:00 sharp, we headed for our cabins - being the first there, Kate and I took the enclosed room within the cabin (as she's been a tad crook) and set up, leaving her Crows scarf out for John and Tracy to spot (Rowville PS, Vic, mates). We all then headed back into town for a quick bite to eat, before enjoying a few brews with the 50 odd people staying with us.

We awoke early Sat morning for a hearty meal - bacon and eggs of course -before embarking on a day filled with "winter activities". Beginning with snow-shoes (old school ones of course - see pics), we blazed a trail -ok, maybe walked awkwardly, but still fun, taking in the sights of the mini forest, looking at a variety of animal tracks, trees and observing a beaver dam up close.

Realising time was passing quickly, we headed to the cross-country skiing practise area, where we enjoyed our first taste of it! Sliding, gliding (and sometimes slipping) the "trainer" decided it was time to climb the ant hill nearby and ride down. After seeing John spill early, I made my way up there and in good Aussie spirit, fell on my ass as well, right in front of Kate with the "movie function" running. It was pretty much the same fall as John's - monkey see, monkey do!

Moving on again in order to cover as many activities as humanly possible, we made our way to the toboggan hills......using matresses, plastic biscuits, sleds and anything else that would make us go fast down the hill to great effect. After smashing our bodies hard on the "smaller", but faster hill, John, Tracy, Kate and myself headed to the top of the big hill. John and I raced down, before he crashed into the side, planting his face hard into the snow on the side. There were some big stacks by the other Aussies, one almost flying into the nearby lake.....which could have been really funny!!!!

Lastly for the day (after much begging) we got to go ice-fishing.....hard work drilling the hole on the lake, then setting up the pole....only problem......the beers were back in the cabin......it's a very "patient" sport!!!

Evening soon arrived and we had the option of either walking or cross-country skiing across the lake (with candles lighting a path for us) - which was great. Kate, Michelle and myself took the walking option, which proved the wiser one, as the skiing traffic was kept slow by those who fell, which would have definitely been us if we'd taken that path!!!

Sunday morning came quickly (after another "couple of drinks" the night before). We headed for the lake again, this time for a dog-sled ride. Pulled by 5 of the most beautiful huskies, Kate and I took it in turn driving and sitting in the basket. Both of us adored the dogs (even though we only had a short time, but a memory that will be with us for a long time!!!). Calling out "Hike" to go and "Whoa" to stop, we had some energetic pups that went no matter what we called out!!!

Just to stir people up I wore my Pies jumper and was teased by the Freo Shockers, i mean Dockers, supporters, who asked if they could stage a photo (strangling me of course) to send back....all in good fun. We had a blast there and hope to get back late Sep for the "summer version.

School Trip

Today was the first of two awesome days....SNOWBOARDING with the school!!!! We headed up to Mt.Pakenham - yeah I know....rather funny...

Took my first ever "snowboarding lesson", which was supposed to last 4-6 hours.....the patient person that I am.....lasted 35 minutes.....as it was rather slow and boring...I just wanted to get to the top of that mountain....ok....little hill.....and fall flat on my a**. Good laugh though!!!

Also got to go on an inflatable tube down the hill....which was amazing!!!

Not much else to tell....apart from the fact that my kids laughed so hard at me falling on my a**

Having a blast!!!

Ottawa Senators...

Well, it has finally been done....we've been to an NHL game - and we still have NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON!!!! A packed stadium - 19, 534 (just to be exact) arrived at Scotia Bank place, just out of Ottawa to watch the favoured local team - the Ottawa Senators play the Buffalo Sabres. The crowd was clapping, cheering and in good spirits....well.....until Buffalo decided to score 3 early goals. We were entertained throughout the match, it took a while to understand some of the rules, and the interesting way they change the bench (5 blokes on, 5 blokes off, even if they had the puck..,..weird!!!)

The crowd started to filter out of the stadium at the 2 minute mark of the 3rd period (only 3 periods, each 20 minutes), after the score had blown out to 5-1. A disappointing effort by the SENS, yet a very good match for us - we got to see lots of GOALS, which made it exciting!!!

After the game, we headed for the car, snow greeted us (around 3-4cm) since we'd been inside! A quick scrape down of the car, we thought we were ready to go, but the 19,000 other people trying to leave thought the same thing. An hour 40 later, we finally got out of the car park, heading for home!!! What an amazing game....we're going again next week (Thanks to Karen's parents!!!!)

Chinner's Ski Weekend!

Surviving Winter...

Guess what....it's that time of year...(i can hear the groans already)

SURVIVOR IS BACK!!!! And yes, I have set up a comp at school...(sad, but true)....but what's worse...there was soooo much interest....I got 2 comps up and running (in 2 days)!!

Just had to tell all the CGPS staff....they prob won't care....but I love it!!!

Here is mine and Kate's display!!!

I landed some guy named: Chet....bit of a ....well....softy
Kate scored Yau man....

For the finale we're having a big get together to watch it all.....sooo exciting....stay well...
Oh, by the way CGPS, Brownlee said she would do a comp for you ;)
Good work Claire!!!

Slip n slide - Canada style!!!

It had to be done....finally. Took the kids for "outdoor gym" - much to their dread....(yeah right!). I decided it was time....borrow the sleds and boards and let them loose on the "slides" at school - and by slides, I mean a slope of ice at the end of our field (only a tiny ramp, but it was soooo much fun watching them stack!!) ;) they love getting pounded into the snow...seriously!!

See for yourself...I had prime camera location at the bottom of the slope, which gave the kids even more incentive, go hard, go fast, bowl Mr.Speed over - he he he....i was too fast....he he he

sorry about the side on view....it is good to see tho.

Winterlude Day 2....

Winterlude (cheering out loud). What fun we've had there in the past couple of days. The lovely Tessier family (Marc & Leslie) took us out for the day. First we picked up some cheap skates
(Yeah i know...cheapskates ha ha ha ha...not funny!!!)

Then we headed for the 8km strip of canal....after the huge deluge of snow that we'd had a couple of days earlier, skating was a tad rough....not just for us either. It was funny watching everyone falling over....we managed to stay upright- not sure how....

After indulging in another Canadian delicacy (we had Poutine - which is french fries, gravy and chunks of cheese), then moved on to sweets (Taffy - maple syrup cooled on ice and rolled until hardened.....delicious!!!)

We skated for a few hours, then headed back to Leslie and Marc's house to watch the SUPER BOWL!!! (getting to sit at Marc's personal bar and indulge in Canadian beers.....YUMMY) and getting so spend time with a wonderful and well behaved labrador- Jaeda!

The game was fast paced....taking 4 hours to finish a 1 hour game....(the last minute took ten minutes with all the stoppages). All in all....it was pretty exciting.....GO New York!!!

Next weekend I'm in Bachelorville - as Kate is heading away on a GIRLS SKI WEEKEND!!! Might take a photo of me doing report cards....yep.....already! Well...maybe not...because Kate will have the camera (I've just been told!)

Winterlude....

Guess what happened last night.....it snowed again. Yesterday in blizzard like conditions we had our first snow day at school. Most classes had 5 or 6 students turn up and you guessed it, i had 18 turn up (lucky me!!!) We merged two classes together and had a "fun filled day" with gym, comics and watching a film in class (a relevant one of course!!!)

We had around 10-15cm of snow during the school day -which made it interesting to drive in - then we had another 10-15cm over night, which made it quite eventful trying to "dig" our way out of the driveway this morning.....we owe a HUGE THANKS TO ED - our wonderful neighbour -who used his wonderful snow blower to clear the last part of our drive, that was waist high - due to the lovely snow plough that plows our street!!! ;) Now onto the real stuff....winterlude!!!

Today was the day....the beginning of Winterlude. The Winter festival that brings Canadians, Americans and International visitors to Ottawa to celebrate one of Canada's finest events. Held over 3 weekends (this is the 1st obviously), the event is home to ice sculpting, concerts, aboriginal performances and stories, ice skating on the longest ice-skating rink in the world (8km on the canal), eating the wonderful Beaver Tails....so delicious, fireworks to celebrate Quebec's 400th year. We saw some wonderful ice sculptures today - from scorpions to horses to well you'll see in the pics...

After a wonderful and eventful day, we headed out to the CLEE dinner (ITF function) where we would meet all the other exchangees in Ottawa. Most of them were a tad older than us (similar to our parents ages), but good for a laugh and to listen to how their experiences went. After a catch up and meet and greet - we ventured home - ready for a beer, or two, a bit of tucker and a good old fashioned snooze....we'll need the rest for the next few weeks....going to be fun!!!